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Thanks, this answers a lot. Reading a bit further, it's interesting that everyone focuses on the legality of the government requesting and receiving information
by repsilat 12y ago
Thanks, this answers a lot. Reading a bit further, it's interesting that everyone focuses on the legality of the government requesting and receiving information rather than on the legality of the company giving it to them.
Can a company that hands over information "without a fight" be sued for a breach of some implicit trust? If not, what about explicit promises or contracts? If at some point the company is not allowed to freely hand over the information, is the government still allowed to receive it in breach of the confidentiality arrangement?
And what about companies giving this information to other non-governmental third parties? In a lot of the contracts I've read and signed, companies have explicitly informed me of circumstances in which (and people to whom) my information may be disclosed. What does this imply about people not named, and what is implied by a contract not having such a clause?
- schoen 12y agoI had kind of a related HN thread recently talking about how some contractual provisions can sometimes be unenforceable in courts because the court concludes that they are against public policy. A contractual promise not to testify in court is an example; you will not be able to sue someone who promises not to testify against you and then does so. I'm don't think that that's the end of the analysis for the interaction between contracts and the third party doctrine, though. But I don't know enough to speculate.